how do i increase my wattage output ?
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SamKennedy
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 8:07 pm
You could consider block training, I'm thinking about it when I decide to start racing seriously.
If my understanding is correct, it works like this:
Choose something you want to train, such as endurance, then train on consecutive days, completing 3 hour ride (or whatever duration depending on your current fitness) every day until you are too fatigued to continue. You then take 2-3 consecutive days off the bike to recover, this is one 'block'. You then complete 3-4 blocks before training something else, such as tempo/sweet spot, threshold, vo2max, anaerobic capacity or neuromuscular power.
If you're just wanting to go faster over a longer distance, focus on endurance, however tempo/threshold/etc.. will also improve your average speed to some degree as well.
If my understanding is correct, it works like this:
Choose something you want to train, such as endurance, then train on consecutive days, completing 3 hour ride (or whatever duration depending on your current fitness) every day until you are too fatigued to continue. You then take 2-3 consecutive days off the bike to recover, this is one 'block'. You then complete 3-4 blocks before training something else, such as tempo/sweet spot, threshold, vo2max, anaerobic capacity or neuromuscular power.
If you're just wanting to go faster over a longer distance, focus on endurance, however tempo/threshold/etc.. will also improve your average speed to some degree as well.
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thisisnotaspoon
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:42 pm
You sound like you know even less about training than me!
That just means your riding too fast. Pace yourself, get a heart rate monitor, a cheep £20 one will do and figure out what heart rate is sustainable for a long ride. For me I know that if I'm going to go out for 3h+ then it needs to be under about 160-165bpm the whole time, under 2 hours and I can afford to push harder up some hills, under an hour pushhard on most hills, under 40min (commuting home from work) I can sprint up every hill and ignore my heart rate.
The trick to going faster for longer is therefore going slower. So if you want to do 3 hour+ rides then you need to do 3 hours at a sustainable pace to get your body used to storeing enough energy to last that long. Simple carbs will keep them toped up during the rides, some people like jam sandwiches, bannanas, fruit, dried fruit, sweets, or more complex carbs like flapjacks, others prefer energy drinks and gells.
Mix those sessions up with faster sessions to build the power. Thse can be either just going out for an hour as fast as you can ride for the hour (not very effective). Or going out for an hour, 15min warming up, then spend the next half hour doing some variation on intervals, e.g. pyramids where you go hard for 1 min, rest 1 min, hard for 2min, rest 1 min, hard for 3 min, rest 1 min, hard for 4 min, rest for 1, hard for 3, rest for 1, hard for 2, rest for 1, hard for 1, rest for 1. Then cool down for 15 min.
Mixing up those sessions used to work for me. I've since got fat and everyone else bought power meters and training's got far more complicated. I'm more in favour of keeping it simple and easy to follow. So an example week would be:
M,T,W - do the fast 1 hour session, but make the middle/tuesday session just an easy one to recover form the day before, maybe just ride slightly harder than a long rides pace for the middle half hour.
Thurs - rest
F, S, S - longer rides at a sustainable pace. You should be tired at the end, but not properly broken untill the Sunday.
Monday - rest
T, W, T - fast sessions as above
Friday - rest
(etc, basicly an 8 day pattern)
Repeat for 3 weeks, then take a week off, doing easy rides to recover. The idea is to push the body past it's limit, then it can repair and that limit moves up a notch. Hence 3 days on, 1 off, 3 weeks on, 1 off. It's the weeks off where the recover takes place and fitness increaces.
The other alternative is just get out and ride, I used to do a 25km commute, absolutely nail myself on it twice a a day, and got fast as a result. The same applies to group rides, I now try and ride with various different groups 3 or 4 times a week as it's more enjoyable for me than trying to do structured training alone, and even easier to stick to, the pace is whatever the group is riding at, no need for heart rate monitors, power meters, or even a cycle computer, just try and ride in groups that are going to push your fitness in the direction you want it to go.
basically. i can ride fast for a short time. then i blow up.
That just means your riding too fast. Pace yourself, get a heart rate monitor, a cheep £20 one will do and figure out what heart rate is sustainable for a long ride. For me I know that if I'm going to go out for 3h+ then it needs to be under about 160-165bpm the whole time, under 2 hours and I can afford to push harder up some hills, under an hour pushhard on most hills, under 40min (commuting home from work) I can sprint up every hill and ignore my heart rate.
The trick to going faster for longer is therefore going slower. So if you want to do 3 hour+ rides then you need to do 3 hours at a sustainable pace to get your body used to storeing enough energy to last that long. Simple carbs will keep them toped up during the rides, some people like jam sandwiches, bannanas, fruit, dried fruit, sweets, or more complex carbs like flapjacks, others prefer energy drinks and gells.
Mix those sessions up with faster sessions to build the power. Thse can be either just going out for an hour as fast as you can ride for the hour (not very effective). Or going out for an hour, 15min warming up, then spend the next half hour doing some variation on intervals, e.g. pyramids where you go hard for 1 min, rest 1 min, hard for 2min, rest 1 min, hard for 3 min, rest 1 min, hard for 4 min, rest for 1, hard for 3, rest for 1, hard for 2, rest for 1, hard for 1, rest for 1. Then cool down for 15 min.
Mixing up those sessions used to work for me. I've since got fat and everyone else bought power meters and training's got far more complicated. I'm more in favour of keeping it simple and easy to follow. So an example week would be:
M,T,W - do the fast 1 hour session, but make the middle/tuesday session just an easy one to recover form the day before, maybe just ride slightly harder than a long rides pace for the middle half hour.
Thurs - rest
F, S, S - longer rides at a sustainable pace. You should be tired at the end, but not properly broken untill the Sunday.
Monday - rest
T, W, T - fast sessions as above
Friday - rest
(etc, basicly an 8 day pattern)
Repeat for 3 weeks, then take a week off, doing easy rides to recover. The idea is to push the body past it's limit, then it can repair and that limit moves up a notch. Hence 3 days on, 1 off, 3 weeks on, 1 off. It's the weeks off where the recover takes place and fitness increaces.
The other alternative is just get out and ride, I used to do a 25km commute, absolutely nail myself on it twice a a day, and got fast as a result. The same applies to group rides, I now try and ride with various different groups 3 or 4 times a week as it's more enjoyable for me than trying to do structured training alone, and even easier to stick to, the pace is whatever the group is riding at, no need for heart rate monitors, power meters, or even a cycle computer, just try and ride in groups that are going to push your fitness in the direction you want it to go.
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CerveloBert
- Posts: 284
- Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2011 12:43 am
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
It seems as though the OP is indeed lost to a point where he doesn't understand the questions he needs to ask.
I'm going to assume that you're newer to the bike judging from your testimony regarding your ride length and experience. I think the first time I got onto a road bike and started gunning for the wheels of seasoned veterans, that humbling feeling came over me followed by the question of "how are they moving so quickly?"
I think the biggest mistake of every new cyclist is jumping in too hard, with no base-building phase. There is a lot to be gained from hours and hours of low intensity initially and I think without being too dogmatic about it, you can gain a lot of fitness initially just by getting on your bike and riding as much as you can without frying yourself. Set a tempo initially and set either a distance or time goal and pace yourself likewise. That shouldn't be too tough to figure out even if you only get on your bike once a week. Let RPE be your training device and just ride man.
I'm going to assume that you're newer to the bike judging from your testimony regarding your ride length and experience. I think the first time I got onto a road bike and started gunning for the wheels of seasoned veterans, that humbling feeling came over me followed by the question of "how are they moving so quickly?"
I think the biggest mistake of every new cyclist is jumping in too hard, with no base-building phase. There is a lot to be gained from hours and hours of low intensity initially and I think without being too dogmatic about it, you can gain a lot of fitness initially just by getting on your bike and riding as much as you can without frying yourself. Set a tempo initially and set either a distance or time goal and pace yourself likewise. That shouldn't be too tough to figure out even if you only get on your bike once a week. Let RPE be your training device and just ride man.
Building large muscles through for instance weight lifting will be effective to increase your maximum power for a short period of time. This is optimal for sprints. That type of muscle produces a lot of lactic acid which you do not want if you are going to continue for a longer while as it will feel very unpleasant (burn) and stop your muscles from producing energy in an efficient way.
What you need to do if you are going to bike a longer distance is learn at what pace you start producing significant amounts of lactic acid so you can stay just under that level. This will keep your average speed/wattage higher.
It sounds like you are currently trying to go fast and do that for a longer and longer distance. Try instead to prioritize the distance or time spent biking and gradually do it at a higher speed.
That is, learn first to get the most over the distance or time period spent riding out of your muscles at current capacity, then try to increase said capacity.
For instance, instead of thinking you want to go for an hour at say 40 km/h, a speed that perhaps now you can keep for a few minutes, Try to keep going for an hour at 28 km/h or some suitable speed. Once the speed feels easy, go a little bit faster and keep pushing up your average speed in small increments. When a speed makes you unable to complete the distance or time spent training without having to slow down and have burning legs go a bit slower. At this point you will have a realistic idea of what kind of speed you can sustain on the distances or time periods you want to be able to ride.
Once you are able to ride in a fashion that gives you a sustainable speed over a distance, people can help you with advice to gradually increase your current speed on that distance.
What you need to do if you are going to bike a longer distance is learn at what pace you start producing significant amounts of lactic acid so you can stay just under that level. This will keep your average speed/wattage higher.
It sounds like you are currently trying to go fast and do that for a longer and longer distance. Try instead to prioritize the distance or time spent biking and gradually do it at a higher speed.
That is, learn first to get the most over the distance or time period spent riding out of your muscles at current capacity, then try to increase said capacity.
For instance, instead of thinking you want to go for an hour at say 40 km/h, a speed that perhaps now you can keep for a few minutes, Try to keep going for an hour at 28 km/h or some suitable speed. Once the speed feels easy, go a little bit faster and keep pushing up your average speed in small increments. When a speed makes you unable to complete the distance or time spent training without having to slow down and have burning legs go a bit slower. At this point you will have a realistic idea of what kind of speed you can sustain on the distances or time periods you want to be able to ride.
Once you are able to ride in a fashion that gives you a sustainable speed over a distance, people can help you with advice to gradually increase your current speed on that distance.
